Open up spots for Canadians

Dear editor: Saudi Arabia has engaged in a diplomatic dispute with Canada.

News stories are claiming Saudi Arabia is relocating 7,000 Saudi students currently at Canadian universities to other countries. As many as 2,000 of these students are graduate or medical students. I believe many of these medical students are currently at UBC. The Saudi Arabia Post Graduate Medical Program in Canada lists many major universities in Canada as participants in training doctors for Saudi Arabia. UBC is on that list.

As any dispute involves pluses and minuses for both sides, I would like to look at potential plus issues for British Columbia. We have a severe doctor shortage in B.C. The foreign Saudi Arabia medical program at UBC has been training doctors for export. I would call on the current NDP government in British Columbia to immediately encourage UBC to fill any vacated foreign student spots at the UBC Medical Department with local residents who will practice in British Columbia.

I am sure that there are many arguments that the UBC foreign doctor training program has been mutually beneficial to B.C. and Saudi Arabia. But this mutual program seems to be ending. Let's immediately move on and make B.C. a better place to live, where all residents can be assured of finding a family doctor. Wayne Martineau, Fraser Lake